Redemption
by SkyHighFan
Summary: After Gadreel's death, he meets God in the afterlife. Summary sucks. One-shot please read and review.


**Author's Note:** I wrote this when I thought of how God would react if He met Gadreel again after everything that had happened. Think of God as looking like Chuck as we all know that Chuck and God are supposed to be the same person and I suck at describing how people look. Oh and _please_ review, good or bad. I'm getting sick of people reading my works and not even saying if it's good or bad. The reference to Kevin forgiving Gadreel and their conversation is a reference to my one-shot Redemption and Advice.

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><p><span><strong>Redemption<strong>

To his surprise, Gadreel found himself awakening after sacrificing himself to blow up Heaven's prison and free Castiel. Gadreel hadn't expected to wake up at all, expecting oblivion at best after everything he had done and could only hope that Castiel had finished what they had started and stopped Metatron. Looking around, Gadreel found himself in a beautiful place that reminded him of the Garden of Eden before its corruption by Lucifer and couldn't understand what he was doing there. Around him he spotted angels that he knew were dead, either from the Fall, from during the war or even before. As he tried to understand how this could be, he heard an unexpected voice speak to him.

"Hello Gadreel."

Gadreel turned in shock to see his Father standing there with a smile on his face. Gadreel immediately bowed before God. "My Lord," he began.

"Rise my son. You do not need to bow before me. I am a loving Father and do not expect everyone to bow to me. I am sure you have many questions for Me."

Gadreel reluctantly rose, not feeling worthy of being in God's presence after his actions: letting evil into the Garden of Eden, helping Metatron usurp God's throne and killing so many innocent angels for rightly choosing not to follow Metatron. However, he was unwilling to disobey his Father and risk His wrath.

"You do not need to fear Me my son for you are forgiven. I know you have done great harm, but you have also worked to make up for your mistakes."

Gadreel finally spoke up at this. "I am not worthy of your forgiveness. I did so much wrong that even sacrificing myself will never be enough to make up for it, I know that. Not only did I let Lucifer corrupt humanity, but I helped a usurper take Your throne which is unforgivable. I also murdered a holy Prophet, an interpreter of Your Word."

God smiled at this. "I think it's up to Me what is or is not forgivable in those matters. Yes, you did help Metatron take control of Heaven, but you were manipulated into doing so and did it with the best of intentions, not evil ones. What Metatron did is beyond forgiveness, but not your actions. Kevin Tran forgives you for your actions; you need to begin to forgive _yourself_ for that. When you realized what you were doing was wrong, you worked to fix your mistakes and gave your life to try to right your wrongs. And you succeeded: your sacrifice allowed Castiel to shatter the angel tablet and defeat Metatron. Metatron is now locked in Heaven's prison and the angels have all returned to Heaven. It is still locked to all but Metatron's portal, but I have faith that the Winchesters will find a way to reopen the Gates."

Gadreel looked up, barely daring to hope. "What about letting Lucifer into the Garden? I broke Your heart, made You leave Heaven and allowed the corruption of humanity."

God sighed. "That wasn't totally your fault. Lucifer is very good at convincing people to do things and tricking them. You were tricked and while I saw that, I was too angry at the corruption of My creation to do anything but punish you for it. However, I never intended that you be imprisoned forever. I left Michael instructions to release you after a few millennia, but he blamed you for My leaving and ignored the order. I forgave you a long time ago for that. It also wasn't your fault that I left: My angels were growing too stagnated in My presence and I hoped that by leaving it would force them to make decisions for themselves instead of just following my orders. However, Michael took My orders too much to heart. I never intended for there to be an Apocalypse, I ordered Michael to kill Lucifer if he ever got out, not do his best to force it to happen to have a fight that would destroy most of humanity. I love My creation: I did not want them destroyed. When the Apocalypse did come, I wasn't willing to intervene directly because I felt the Winchesters could stop it with the right help and the right push. I posed as a Prophet to help them secretly by making sure they were in the right places at the right time when I could and I brought back Castiel to aid them as he had proven to be one of the few angels willing to follow My commandment to love humanity above all else and was willing to give his life to do so. I was right: the Winchesters stopped the Apocalypse on their own and when Michael was sent to the Cage, I saw a chance for Heaven to make a new way under a new leader so I raised Castiel once more and promoted him. He rightly assumed that I did so and wanted him to lead Heaven, however, I had not counted on Raphael's desire to continue the Apocalypse to the extent he'd be willing to fight a civil war and fight My chosen as he did. When Raphael was killed, I made sure to let him know of My… _displeasure_ with his actions."

Gadreel wasn't sure how to respond to that so he looked at his surroundings, taking in all the dead angels, noting that some he knew were dead, like Zachariah, were missing. "What is this place and why are there so many dead angels here but not others?"

God smiled. "This is one of the places where angels come when they die. It's a sort of Paradise for dead angels. Most angels end up here unless they are truly malicious or evil and beyond redemption. Some like Uriel and Zachariah were sent into a kind of oblivion due to their actions, but most are just misguided and thus belong here. When any angel dies, I meet them personally here to discuss their actions and decide on their final fate. Most angels who commit crimes show remorse for them, however, some have none, seeing their actions as right out of various reasons, usually contempt for humanity. Some of those, however, see the error of their ways when they learn of how I never wanted an Apocalypse and much of what led up to it was manipulation on the part of their superiors. Even Castiel met me here each time he died though he doesn't remember it. I offered him the choice to go back and he always accepted. I erased his memory of the experience though I left him the impression of My presence and that I was responsible and in the case of his return after Lucifer's defeat, what I wanted of him."

"And what of me? Do I deserve oblivion or Paradise?"

"Gadreel, I have already told you that you are forgiven. You are where you belong. It make take time for the other angels to forgive your actions, but I will make it known that you _are_ to be forgiven by them and granted a second chance. Welcome home My son."

With that, God disappeared leaving Gadreel to his afterlife. While it wouldn't be easy dealing with angels who would hate him for what he had done, he had his Father's forgiveness and thus had hope.


End file.
